Wednesday, May 4, 2011

GOD'S PROMISE TO ABRAHAM: PART TWO

As I mentioned yesterday, the re-birth of the nation of Israel, which occurred on May 14, 1948, was the result of, what seems to be, a collective guilty conscience. And while it didn't last long before nation after nation returned to being apathetic, and in many obvious cases, hostile, the United States and Great Britain remained strong supporters of Israel until about twenty or so years ago. Then things began to radically change.

Before I discuss the details of our sudden reversal in support, I want to explain what I mean by "collective guilty conscience." The nations of the world had allowed persecution of Jews to continue throughout the centuries following Rome's destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, but it was not until the end of World War II that "Gentiles" began to take notice. Here is a brief history:

Between 1933-1935, the Nazi Party ordered a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses, and the Nuremberg Laws stripped German Jews of their citizenship. In 1938, a decree made it mandatory for Jews to insert the middle names "Israel" and "Sara" into all official documents (notice they didn't use the name "Hagar"). State-sponsored rioting resulted in Kristallnacht, "the Night of Broken Glass," with many synagogues, Jewish homes, and schools being looted or destroyed. An estimated 30,000 Jewish people were sent to concentration camps. Still, the nations of the world were silent about Jewish persecution.

World War II began, not as a response to the treatment of the Jews, but because Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Within a year, Germany conquered Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France. Approximately 164,000 Polish Jews were imprisoned in the Lodz ghetto, and Auschwitz concentration camp was created. A "final solution to the Jewish question" was enacted following the Wannsee Conference, held in the Berlin suburb, on 20 January 1942. It wasn't until the Allied Forces liberated the death camps that the world was "shamed into compassion."

I do not claim to know the mind of God, nor can I prove the "cause and effect principle" is why the world suffered the loss of over 60 million people, but one thing is certain: World War II was clear evidence that God was not happy. Today, the United States government is more hostile toward God's people than it has ever been, and I believe God is attempting to get our attention in order to turn us around.

Tomorrow, Lord willing, I would like to share my thoughts on American-Israeli relations since the first Bush Administration began in 1989, and give some examples of the chastisement of the Lord on our land.